This invention relates to charge air cooler heat exchangers for cooling charge air supplied to a combustion engine. More specifically, this invention relates to an improved arrangement for directly mounting a charge air cooler securely into an engine intake manifold.
Charge air cooler heat exchangers in general are well known in the art. These heat exchangers comprise a heat exchanger core mounted along the flow path of charge air to the intake of a combustion engine. More specifically, in many combustion engines, ambient air is compressed by means such as a supercharger or turbocharger to provide a supply of compressed air to the engine in order to improve overall engine power and performance. However, the ambient air is heated upon compression to undesirably increase the total engine heat load. It is therefore desirable to cool the charge air prior to supply thereof to the engine. In this regard, charge air coolers function to pass the charge air in heat transfer relation with a suitable coolant, such as ambient air or liquid coolant from an engine radiator, prior to supply of the charge air to the engine.
In some applications, it is both convenient and desirable to mount the charge air cooler heat exchanger directly into the air intake manifold of an engine. In this configuration, the charge air passing through the intake manifold also passes through the charge air cooler immediately prior to ingestion by the engine, with suitable plumbing fixtures being provided for circulating liquid coolant from an engine radiator through the cooler in heat transfer relation with the charge air. Typically, such an internally mounted charge air cooler is bolted on opposite sides to the intake manifold, and includes an enlarged external flange for seating between corresponding mating flanges of upper and lower intake manifold sections for aligning the cooler for reception of bolts. However, in spite of the provision of the external flange for positioning the cooler, the size and weight of the various components makes bolting of the cooler into the manifold a difficult and time-consuming manufacturing operation in order to properly align the various bolts with associated threads. Moreover, two gaskets are required to seal the upper and lower faces of the external flange against fluid leakage.
The present invention overcomes the problems and disadvantages of the prior art by providing an improved charge air cooler mounting arrangement which provides means for accurately and easily aligning bolts with associated threads, and which minimizes the required number of fluid seal gaskets.